W. track: UCLA pole vaulter puts adversity behind her as she prepares for championships

Everything UCLA’s Chelsea Johnson has endured so far this
season will all be worth it if she can achieve her goals next week
at the NCAA Championships. All the leg injuries. The months of
rehab after she underwent surgery in September to repair ligament
damage in her left knee. The near-disastrous sixth-place finish at
the NCAA Regionals in Oregon this past weekend. That is all behind
Johnson, who has regrouped in practice this week and will focus her
energy on winning a second consecutive national championship in the
pole vault next week in Sacramento. Johnson, despite all the
adversity she has faced this season, still boasts the best
collegiate mark in the nation this year, but she has yet to
approach the heights she soared to during her record-setting
sophomore campaign last year. Even before she won the NCAA title
last June, Johnson regularly cleared at least 14 feet, 6 inches
during the course of the season. Her season-best performance this
year, a jump of 14 feet, 1.25 inches at USC last month, marks the
only time she has cleared 14 feet since the U.S. Olympic Trials,
and at the Regional meet in Oregon last week, her best jump was
just 12 feet, 11.75 inches. But there is reason to believe that
Johnson, one of only three women who return from last year to
defend their titles, may be atop the podium again this year. Last
year, Johnson also struggled late in the season, no-heighting at
the USC meet and falling short of the 14-foot mark at the Pac-10
Championships. And before Regionals this year, she had been
incrementally improving each week and seemed to be peaking in time
for NCAAs. The top contenders that Johnson will face in Sacramento
include several familiar faces: Washington’s Kate Soma and
San Diego State’s Shayla Balentine, a former high school
rival of Johnson. Another championship hopeful, Kansas’ Amy
Linnen, also has West Coast roots, having competed at Arizona for
most of her career. Johnson, who will also compete at the U.S.
National Championships in Carson, Calif., later this month, has
been hoping to start clearing some bigger bars for weeks. Her
recent history in Sacramento, however, isn’t especially
promising. At the 2003 NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Johnson,
then a freshman, failed to clear the bar on any of her three
attempts at the opening height, prematurely ending what had been a
solid debut season. Unable to watch the rest of the meet, a
teary-eyed Johnson sat by the runway with her head buried in her
hands before retreating into the arms of her parents. Her return
trip to Sacramento is less than a week away, and Johnson is
confident it will end differently this time. Not in tears by the
edge of the track, but atop the podium hoisting a trophy.

ODDS AND ENDS: The last time UCLA competed in Sacramento was at
the 2003 NCAA Championships when the Bruins finished a
disappointing eighth … The event will be in Sacramento for the
next three years, marking the first time it will be in the same
city in successive years since 1944-45.